2012-2013 Indians Red Hot Offseason Thread (Bourn signed post 1940)

[Pyro]

Watch, Swisher will accept our offer, and Youk will not.

[Windians]

Agreed, I think for that money Adam LaRoche would provide on a two year deal (with a third year vesting option) it's a better option.

The Indians simply can't tie themselves up long term in mid-level players on high dollar deals.

I'd be fine with Swisher at 10-12 mil less than that over the same amount of years, but 60 mil is crazy. I understand the deals that other guys are getting dictate the market and cause inflation, but at a certain point you have back off and spend more wisely as I'm sure the Tribe will do.

[SRStark20]

Going back and looking at Swisher's stats the past few years... he really isn't even that good.

I mean, he's good. But he's not 14 mil a year good.

Last few years:

2010 - .288/29/89
2011 - .260/23/85
2012 - .272/24/93

That was in a protected New York lineup. Coming to Cleveland where he'd be one of our main offensive threats, and leaving Yankee Stadium... along with normal decline...

By the time he is 35 or 36, he'd probably be down around .240 and maybe fifteen home runs. However, should he be a DH, it could extend his career.

4yr/60mil for him is insane.

[BimboColesHair]

Lets relax with this "leaving the friendly confines of Yankee Stadium" stuff. He's hit 46 home runs in 1216 plate appearances at Yankee Stadium. Compare that to 41 home runs in 1006 plate appearances at The Coliseum, not exactly a hitters park.

[Spectre]

There is just no way he's worth that price.

He's not but look at 95% of the FA contracts signed this off-season... the value is absolutely putrid. We can keep offering reasonable contracts but when these guys are getting an extra $10M shoved in their face, the odds of them coming here are slim. IMO Youk is our best hope because we're offering him an extra year and he has connections that might convince him to take a "hometown" discount. Still, even if he takes our offer, we're paying $9M for a guy who posted a .235/.336/.409 slash line last year.

It's crazy after the criticism we deserved last year for sitting on the sidelines but every time I see the numbers these guys are asking for, the more I'm glad other teams are taking them on. Our payroll is too limited in a non-contending phase to commit 25% of it to freaking Nick Swisher over 4 years.

[Spectre]

Lets relax with this "leaving the friendly confines of Yankee Stadium" stuff. He's hit 46 home runs in 1216 plate appearances at Yankee Stadium. Compare that to 41 home runs in 1006 plate appearances at The Coliseum, not exactly a hitters park.

Yes but he'd also lose 6 games worth of .435/.480/.783 courtesy of our awesome pitching staff.

[RealKingofCleve]

Baltimore had a negative run differential most of the year, worked out OK.

My guess would be that it had less to do with run differential and more to do with pitching.

And they finished positive. And when they were negative, it was not to the same degree. Completely disagreed when (at the time) you argued they were winning and it didn't matter. I think amhearstcavsfan and others pointed out it would catch up to them and you disagreed. And obviously pitching was the main culprit of that horrid run differential.

[b00bie]

And they finished positive. And when they were negative, it was not to the same degree. Completely disagreed when (at the time) you argued they were winning and it didn't matter. I think amhearstcavsfan and others pointed out it would catch up to them and you disagreed. And obviously pitching was the main culprit of that horrid run differential.

They finished +7...

Even if they finished negative, they still could have made the playoffs. Crazier things have happened.

It's not the run differential that catches up with them, it's the pitching.

[shoes22]

I don't know about anybody else, but I am far more interested in getting that Asdrubal trade to Arizona done than signing these free agents. There are still a ton of above-average hitters we can sign to fill our lineup holes, but our rotation is on such thin ice something really needs to happen on that front before spring training, or this is guaranteed to be a messy year.

[MoFlo]

Jim Bowden now claiming Swisher demand is up to four years and upwards of 60 million.

I just can't stress enough how bad of a deal that would be.

Swish an an incredibly professional player, he's got a great eye at the plate and will go out and bust his ass for you 150 games a year or more.

But at 32, leaving the friendly confines of Yankee Stadium and being elevated to a middle of the lineup hitter...is a bad combination.

There is just no way he's worth that price.

What do you think of Bowden saying the Tribe is hoping to get him at 4/48-50?

[SRStark20]

What do you think of Bowden saying the Tribe is hoping to get him at 4/48-50?

I'd take him at twelve mil per year for four years.

I'm not sure how baseball works, but I'd want some sort of team option for the fourth year though, if he declines massively.

[b00bie]

What do you think of Bowden saying the Tribe is hoping to get him at 4/48-50?

I hope he's as out of touch as most in the business believe him to be.

[MoFlo]

Ken Rosenthal‏@Ken_Rosenthal

Source: #Indians still pursuing Youk, as well as multi-team A. Cabrera trade with #DBacks. Also exploring number of alternatives to both.

Back to the multi-team talk.

[Pyro]

[sjhughes]

I seen that the D-backs signed Mccarthy which for the last few days they have said they want to acquire some pitchers so they can trade younger arms to gain a short stop. I know reports came out that they want a longer contract than what drubs has but i dont buy that and I think this addition may in turn help the tribe.